The Democrats' censorship problem

When Peter Doocy questioned Jen Psaki about the Biden administration's collusion with Big Tech, Psaki's response was defensive. On Thursday, Psaki admitted from the White House press briefing room that the Biden administration is working hand-in-glove with Facebook and other social media companies to stop the spread of "disinformation."

What was amazing is that Psaki admitted it so nonchalantly that it was like this wasn't a big deal. She said that the Surgeon General's office had identified posts containing misinformation about COVID. Then she admitted that they were "in regular touch with the social media platforms" and that "those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team."

Who gave this administration that authority? It certainly isn't in the Bill of Rights. It isn't in the First Amendment. Ms. Psaki said that the administration had "increased disinformation research and tracking." Ms. Psaki specifically said that "12 people" had posted 65% of the misinformation: This is from Thursday:

🚨🚨: Jen Psaki says the Biden administration is actively flagging what they deem "disinformation" about the pandemic to Facebook for censoring.

What could go wrong?? pic.twitter.com/THz85cqi3R

— John Cooper (@thejcoop) July 15, 2021

What's the most chilling is when Ms. Psaki told Mr. Doocy that "our biggest concern, and frankly, I think it should be your biggest concern, is the number of people dying around the country because they're getting misinformation that is leading them to not get a vaccine.

Phillip Wegman's article adds this important piece to the Democrats' censorship puzzle:

Murthy asserted that tech giants like Facebook and Twitter are not doing enough to slow the spread of misinformation, particularly about the safety of the COVID vaccine. “Simply put,” he said, “health misinformation has cost us lives.” The administration, he continued, is asking social media companies to do more to monitor bad information, and “we’re asking them to consistently take action against misinformation super-spreaders on their platform.”

By saying that they're "asking social media to do more to monitor bad information", the Biden administration is enlisting the private sector to silence speech the government is prohibited from silencing. Whether the censorship is ordered by a cabinet official or whether the censorship is implemented by someone working with the Biden administration, the courts likely will see this as the administration doing through private actors what the administration can't do on its own.

Democrats touched off a firestorm when they took this approach. The First Amendment text says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." That applies to people acting on this administration's behalf, too. This is a bigger deal because of President Trump's lawsuit. If that proceeds to discovery, the documents from that part of the process could bury this administration.

Facebook must be upset with Psaki, too. Until this week, FB had coasted along, pretending to be a company that played by the rules. Psaki's admission that they're working with FB blew that to smithereens. Today's Democrats have told Big Tech that they aren't censoring enough speech. The Democrats' partnership with Big Tech is unraveling. This won't get pretty.